The Pack's Mate: The Woodland Wolf Packs, #1

By Amelia Shaw

Three wolf-shifting predators want to claim me as their mate.

I believe in medicine. In science. In logic.
So when I wake up in a house hidden deep in the woods, with three strange men standing guard,

I should be kicking and screaming and cussing up a storm.
But a pulse of attraction thrums through my veins and drowns out the voice telling me to run.
These men say they're part man, part wolf. And they want me as their mate.
Yeah right! I say they need a psych consult. STAT.
But when they transition from mortal men to powerful wolf predators in front of my eyes…I can no longer deny their claims.
Or the fact these wolf shifters want to claim me.
I'm still not sure I haven't lost my ever lovin' mind, but as danger lurks…I have to trust they'll protect me, and my heart too.

Fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and J.R. Ward will devour this steamy Whychoose wolf shifter romance!

Scroll up and one click today to start reading The Woodland Packs series, with no cheating and a super sweet, happily ever after guaranteed!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tamsin Baker
• Release date: Apr 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386479000

Book preview

Chapter 1

DEXTER

My pack community grounds looked nothing like they did when I was a child. The once soft grass, still so fresh in my memory, was gone, worn down to dirt. The area, central to our town, was littered with beer bottles and cigarette butts, the playground equipment long since hauled off somewhere, probably to rot or rust in the woods. Out of our sight.

The sun was only just rising, but we were all up as usual, ready to start another long day’s work. The heavy scent of testosterone filled in the air. My all-male pack, consisting of Taylor and Jay, bonded with the men with whom we grew up. Every one of them had been placed into small all-male families of their own now.

A sigh rippled through my throat as I glanced from the rock-strewn dirt at my feet, up to the pack. The group of men before me was a powerful, yet depressing sight. I loved these men. They were family, but I’d grown so tired of the same, familiar, male faces, day in, and day out. For a whole generation now, the Woodlands pack had not borne a single female.

Not one.

For almost sixty years, the elders of my pack had questioned what happened to our breed, but they had not been forthcoming with any answers, so far. What would happen to our genetic lines if there were no female mates to carry our children for future generations? No one could answer that, either.

My mother and her sisters were some of the last pack-born women, and all of them had produced at least three sons each.

Which would have been great if there had been some other pack females around to mate with, when we all came of age. But there were none.

What went wrong? No one knew.

What we did know was that there would be no more children born to our purebred wolf-shifting women.

It would be impossible. The last of our fertile females matured past breeding age almost twenty years ago, so there was no longer any hope of a savior being born for our pack.

Something had to be done. If we didn’t find women to breed with soon, our pack would likely become extinct.

There was an obvious option, and that was something we had been putting off as long as possible, because we didn’t really know if it would work. We had decided to bring human women into the pack.

We needed to venture into the cities and acquire human females for breeding.

But no one knew if that would actually work, as it had never been attempted before. And that’s why we had waited so long.

We had waited too long. It was time to take action, before there was no pack left at all.

We had something called a fated mate in our world. Wolf shifters in my pack only bred with their true mate, the one chosen for them by Fate. We had no idea if a wolf shifter could mate with a human, in the sense of being a true fated mate pairing. It seemed unlikely, but with no wolf shifter females left, we had to try something to save our blood line.

I was told that if I ever met my fated mate, I would recognize her by her scent. There would be an instant attraction, an undeniable bond from the moment we laid eyes on each other. And when we touched... sparks would ignite. I didn’t actually know if any of that was true or not, as I’d never experienced it before. No one my age had.

We had to rely on the stories our parents told us, which seemed to change with time, like fairy tales.

It was hard to know what to believe and what to discount; tough to discern between all the blurred lines between fact and fiction that had grown over the years. And if there were no more wolf-born women, did the fated mate concept still even exist? Would that magical, instant bond still exist outside of the pack community?

Probably not.

We were in uncharted territory and no one in the pack knew the answers, not even the elders. And everyone was afraid of what would become of us if the fated mate bond failed us all.

Dex! The greeting came out of nowhere, interrupting my maudlin thoughts. Come quickly. It’s your dad. Taylor, my Beta, came running at me at break-neck speed and grabbed my arm.

My dad?

Where is he? What’s happened?

Come on. Taylor tugged at my arm, then turned and ran in the direction of my parents’ home. I followed behind, running to catch up and not thinking twice.

My father had been feeling unwell for months, and as one of the elders in our pack, that was a bad omen for everyone.

The elders are meant to be the strongest of us.

He can’t die. Not yet. Not until we’ve secured the continuation of our bloodline.

Thoughts tumbled through my head, on a loop.

I’ll be lost without him.

No. It’s not his time to go. It can’t be.

Taylor led me straight to my parents’ house and into the lounge, where my father was laying on the couch and my mother was on the floor beside the couch, kneeling over him.

Dad’s face was deathly pale and his breath wheezed in and out of his chest like it was consuming all of his energy just to stay alive for a few minutes longer.

He hadn’t looked like that when I saw him last. What happened? I asked as I crouched down next to my mother. Fear scudded through my chest.

Mom turned and squeezed my hand. Please, Dexter, please. Take him to the hospital in Little Creek.

Little Creek was the nearest human town. Mom, no. You know that’s not our way. Surely there was some other way to help him?

We had a healer in our pack, but he was rarely required for anything other than fighting injuries. Our paranormal genetics meant that we healed extremely fast and rarely fell ill, unless it was something very serious.

My mom grabbed my shoulders with surprising force. Dexter, I am not ready to lose him. Not yet. He can’t die. I am asking you to help your father. Take him to a doctor at the hospital. Please.

I looked at my father, who met my gaze with his own. He didn’t nod, but he didn’t shake his head no, either. Pain laced his expression and my heart jolted hard when, for the first time ever, I saw fear in my father’s eyes. He didn’t want to die.

The decision was made for me. I had to take him in.

Right, let’s do this. Taylor, grab Jay and the truck. Bring it ‘round the front. I’ll carry Dad out.

Taylor looked at me for a long moment, as though questioning my logic. But in the end, he saw that I was serious, and followed my instructions as any good Beta would.

Thank you, Dexter! Thank you, my mother said, as she jumped to her feet and moved out of the way.

I leaned down and lifted my father up into my arms, grunting with the effort. He weighed more than me, and when he flopped against my chest I realized how weak he really was.

Up until yesterday, he’d been feeling unwell, but that was the extent of it. Mostly, he was still as strong as ever. Or so I’d thought.

Perhaps he’d been hiding this illness—or disease, or whatever was ravaging him—far better than I’d guessed.

I shifted him a little, arranging his arm over my shoulder and securing him properly in my hold so that I could safely carry him out to the truck.

Let’s go, Dad.

I didn’t know if a human hospital could save him. I was suddenly concerned nothing could save him. I’d been blind to the seriousness of his condition, whatever it was. But if there was a chance to save him at the hospital, then we had to try.

I limped outside under the weight of my father’s bulk, his ragged breathing echoing in my ear. His skin was clammy beneath my palms.

Are you sure this is what you want, Dad? I asked, as the vehicle pulled up.

If my father didn’t want the humans to help him, then I wouldn’t force him.

My father nodded, but just barely.

Okay. I was doing the right thing.

Let’s go then, old man.

That got the briefest of smiles from my dad as I hefted him as carefully as I could into the back seat of the full-sized truck.

Taylor helped me get him situated, then I climbed into the driver’s seat.

I adjusted the rear vision mirror so I could see my father’s ashen face during the drive.

Little River is an hour away, so don’t you dare die on us before I get you there, Dad.

I gave my words a threatening growl for good measure, and there was a weak laugh from the back seat. My dad couldn’t muster any words, but he was still trying for humor.

Jay slid onto the floor behind my seat, at my father’s feet, the perfect Omega. Lucky, we had good-sized trucks instead of small cars, or he would never have fit.

My pack was in, and my father wasn’t getting any better just sitting here.

Let’s go.

I planted my foot on the accelerator and we took off toward the nearest town. I drove the roads as fast yet as safely as possible, my heart thundering in my chest the closer we got to Little River.

Let’s hope the human stories of hatred toward our kind have been exaggerated, huh? Taylor joked, trying to ease some of the tension in the truck.

The silence had become overwhelming.

I managed to smile, though I suspected it might look more like a grimace. Yeah, I think as long as none of us go shifting in the middle of the city, we’ll be fine.

All of us of mating age had ventured into the cities for clandestine sexual encounters with random strangers on occasion, but we never went anywhere near the heart of the city, nor did we linger once our needs were sated.

We also steered clear of the hospitals and doctors when we were injured, in fear of the possibility of having our blood tested and finding a difference that they could not explain.

We’d been told since we were kids how much humans hated us. That they feared anything different and if they identified who—or in their eyes, what—we were, we’d be locked up in a zoo, or dissected on a scientist’s table.

That was one of the reasons I didn’t want to take Dad here to the hospital. Presumably they would need to take and test some of his blood. When it came back different to human blood...

I shook my head, figuring we would deal with that later. First priority was to get Dad well.

Taylor grinned and answered my earlier comment about shifting. Yeah, I hope so.

We drove the rest of the hour in silence, broken only by the creepy rasp of my father’s breathing.

Taylor pulled out his cell phone and directed me to the hospital using the maps feature.

Turn left here. And it should be on our right.

The hair on my arms stood on end as we passed through the human city. So much light, so many people. A thousand shops and cars. Noise everywhere. Too much of everything. Chaos and cacophony that we weren’t accustomed to.

My senses were already reeling when I pulled up outside the emergency department next to a hospital that stood a hundred feet tall.

I’ll take Dad in. Taylor, you park the truck and meet me inside. Jay, help me if you can.

Jay nodded and easily slid out the door, his agile, lithe body making every movement smooth and effortless.

I jumped out, opened the rear door and reached into the back seat for my father’s form. His wheezing was getting worse. He was really struggling to breathe now, and his lips were turning blue.

His gaze on me was now full of fear, and I knew we couldn’t waste any time.

I pulled my dad along the seat, hard. Adrenaline pumped through my bloodstream, making my muscles bulge and tingle with strength.

My instincts were telling me that Dad’s time was almost up.

Jay got under my father’s other arm and together we carried him toward the sliding doors.

They whooshed open and two men rushed out.

Do you need help? they asked, the foreign human scent rolling off their bodies making my hackles rise.

I grabbed for my father’s huge bulk, a growl ripping through my throat as they attempted to take him from me.

Taylor pushed at me. Dexter, they want to help. Let him go.

Fighting back the red shifting haze was harder than I thought.

I had to calm down, and fast.

Focus on Dad. Why you’re here.

I gulped air into my lungs and forced my arms to unhook their death-like grip.

"This is my father. He can’t breathe... I think it’s his heart.